Later on in life
by rAndOMFan274
Summary: The titans split up 2 years ago, but Raven still isn't over it. One day an old friend shows up at her house and finds out a secret she meant to keep.
1. The visit

Disclaimer: I own none of the teen titans

Also I don't know if I should continue the story, please review...

It had been two years since the titans had split up. Beastboy and terra were going to get married, cy and bumblebee headed off in the same direction but were taking things a little slower, starfire decided to return home to Tamaran and reclaim her role as leader, and Robin went back to Gotham as Nightwing to help with crime there….. Raven just sat in her now cold bath tub taking another drink from her bottle then crying more into the bathwater then taking another sip. She had no life outside of the titans, she became the owner of a large library but never worked there, she paid others to do that. She had no life, and her library barely paid her enough to sustain herself. The little money she had left went toward groceries and rent, but lately she wasn't very hungry and instead of buying food she just got beer and a few apples. She ate one apple a day but that was it, other than beer she had nothing really. She was plagued with depression since the day the titans split up. To fit in with normal people she dyed her hair black and took off the gem she used to always wear, but she never really felt normal. She took another sip of her beer. Today was a very sad day for her, it not only was the two year anniversary of her old team disbanding but today she had seen Nightwing in action. She guessed that's what she gets for moving to Gotham, but he looked directly into her eyes and he didn't recognize her. She sighed as she took another sip of her beer emptying it. She had been sitting in this bath for probably 4 hours now. She knew she had to get out eventually so she stood up, dried herself off, and got dressed. She grabbed her now empty beer bottle and exited the bathroom. She walked over to the kitchen in just her bra and underwear and quickly threw out her bottle. She then went into the pantry to grab another. She grabbed them out from their hiding place in the back shadows of the closet. She grabbed a bottle and popped open the cap, she sighed and took a quick chug from the bottle.

"So, I guess you remember what today is to?" she heard a voice in the shadows say. She could recognize that voice anywhere, it was Robin or now called Nightwing.

No, it couldn't be, she thought to herself she was just drunk. "Oh great, now I'm the fucking crazy drunk person who hears voices in her head." she mumbled to herself taking another swing from her bottle, but to her surprise Nightwing stepped out of the shadows. She was hallucinating she told herself, waiting for the vision to go away. So she took another chug from the bottle.

"Raven I'm real," he stepped forward toward her and grabbed her hand and put it to his top right of his chest letting her feel his heartbeat. She started crying, again. "I've missed, you." He told her.

"No you didn't, you chose to leave and you didn't look back," she told him, "Hell, I was never really close enough to any of the titans to have them miss me." She continued.

"You miss them," he pointed out.

"Yeah, I miss them, I loved all the team like family but if I showed it things would explode. The only way to keep you guys safe was to alienate myself from you, of you." She told him crying, she attempted to take another swing from the bottle but Nightwing grabbed it.

"I think you've had enough," he tells her as he dumps the rest down the drain and goes to throw out the bottle. As soon as he open the can, his expression changed to dead serious.

"Shit," she said aloud, running over taking the bottle from him and throwing it in with the others. She quickly closed the lid hoping he wouldn't press her for answers on the contents inside.

"Raven, who's blood is on all those clothes?" he asked her.

"No ones, it's just paint not blood," she told him hoping he'd buy it but he was too smart for that.

"Raven, that's blood! I've seen it enough to recognize it! Who's is it? That's a lot of blood to lose!" He yelled at her.

"God calm down, it's mine. I tripped with a knife in my hand." She told him hoping once again he would buy her bluff.

"Even if that happened you could have healed yourself before you lost that much blood!" he once again called her bluff, hoping and praying it wasn't what he thought it meant.

"God, I tripped, I was in pain, it took me a little bit to get my emotions together to be able to heal myself." She told him sticking to her story. As she was telling him this she was taking a few steps back away from him and wasn't paying attention to where she was going. She tripped on a lamp plug and fell on her butt.

"Raven," he said as he held out his hand to her, to help her up. She grabbed it and he quickly grabbed the base of her arm so she could not move it as he looked at her wrist and the back of her arm, finding exactly what he hoped wouldn't be there. He let go of her and started pacing.

"God what did you except, that everyone would come out on top after the titans split. I had no home, no money, no family, and then no friends. I was barely able to get a job and earn enough money. I had to always be working at multiple places to sustain myself. Then finally I bought a library where others work and I just sit here alone, and this… this is not the life I wanted. You may have come out on top after we disbanded, Nightwind," she mocked his name, "but I wasn't so lucky! BB, cy, terra, bubblebee... they may have been sad about the split but they had each other! And kori had decided to go home even before we split, never planning to come back! Then there was you who got your fancy little gig going back to your home town but I wasn't so lucky! I hit rock bottom while everyone was on the top!" She told him.

"Raven, I'm…" Nightwing tried to aplogize before Raven cut him off.

"I don't need your apologizes or your pity, just why are you here?" she asked him upset.

"I saw you near the center of the fight today and I wanted to make sure you were okay…" he told her. She smiled in her head, he did recognize her after all, but her face was still dead serious.

"Well there you seen it here, I'm not! But there's nothing you can do about it! And don't even think of trying to get me counseling or locking my up in some psychiatric ward, this is not your problem to fix Robi…" she pushed for a second remembering he was a new person now, "Nightwing, we're not a team anymore, okay? Just leave, I really just don't want to see you, not today, just get out." She said breaking down crying.

Nightwing walked over to her and hugged her while she was crying, this just made her cry some more. He walked them over to the coach to sit down, she just wouldn't maybe couldn't stop crying. "I don't care if we're not a team anymore Rae, I still care about you, I always have, you mean a lot to me." He told her.

She kept crying in his arms and all he could look at where the scars on her arms. He was so sad to see her beautiful body covered in ugly marks of pain and hate. Suddenly he heard the crying stop, he looked at her face and saw she was asleep. He stared at her beautiful face and then he fell asleep to with her in his arms.

-Next morning-

Nightwing woke up first seeing raven in his arms, it was all he ever wanted, all he ever needed. He looked at her face asleep in his lap, he wanted this moment to last forever. Then raven woke up.

"Huh…." She said as she opened her eyes slowly seeing Nightwing staring back into them with happiness. She wanted this moment to last, she loved him, she had always loved him. That was one of the reasons the split up of the team had been so hard for her. "Did you spend the whole night here?" she asked him.

"Yep, I wouldn't leave your side for the world." He told her as she blushed, "Raven?"

"Yes?" she asked him.

"Would you consider spending a few days at the mansion? I can't just leave you here, not in this state. I need to see you and know you're okay," he told her and she started blushing harder.

"Okay, for you." She told him and she watched the smile on his face grow.

"Raven?"

"Yes?"

"I love you," he told her looking directly into her eyes hoping she would feel the same. She pounced forward and hugged him, they let their bodies melt into each other's. They wanted it to stay like this forever, they were both just happy.

"I love you too," she whispered in his ear and although she couldn't see his face, she knew it was glowing.

He finally pulled away from the hug, "Want help packing?" he asked. She shook her head and got up walking to the closet in her room with Nightwing right behind her. She could feel his breath on her neck and the warmth he was giving off standing right behimd her. After about an hour Raven had packed enough clothes for two weeks, also changing her outfit as well.

"Okay let's go." Raven said to Nightwing.

"Okay," Nightwing told her, "I have to go the back way I came because I can't exactly walk over there with you. But when you get there ask for dick and they'll let you in... probably."

"Okay, but why are you at the mansion? I mean your 23, like me. Don't you have your own house?" She asked him.

"Yes, I do, but all the bat's are staying at the mansion while we search for the joker." He told her, instantly regretting it. The public wasn't supposed to know about the jokers escape.

"Wait, he escaped?" She asked him somewhat scared.

"Yeah, I uh wasn't supposed to tell anyone, so don't tell." He told her, moving toward the window getting ready to leave.

"Who would I tell?" she asked rolling her eyes as he leapt out her window.


	2. The Bat Family

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the teen titans...

Raven left her apartment thinking about Nightwing. She got a cab to Wayne Manor and was dropped off at the front gate with her suitcase. She pressed the intercom button. She heard the line opening.

"What do you want?" she heard a grumpy voice ask.

"Hi, umm I was asked by Dick Grayson to come here." She replied, waiting to be let in.

"Well this isn't dick, he's been gone all night, have any idea where he was?" he asked.

"Who's asking?" she asked, giving him the same treatment and tone her was giving her.

"Damian Wayne," he replied, "Oh and now Bruce Wayne's asking too."

"Well he was at my house last night, we were talking about stuff…. Yesterday was exactly two years after the disbanding of the teen titans. We were talking about the good old days." she told them.

"I'm sorry what?" she heard a deeper voice asking, probably Bruce she thought to herself.

"Oh right, umm I'm raven his old teammate. The one who saw inside his head that one time with Slade, he told me that he told you because then I knew your identity which I would never tell anyone…." She rambled on. She then heard the call being shut and the gate opened letting her inside. She rolled her suitcase up to the door and was greeted by the unhappy looks of Bruce and Damian who were worried about him. Raven understood why with Joker having escaped and everything.

"Well where's dick?" Bruce asked raising his voice a bit.

"He told me to meet him here since he was still in uniform and couldn't be seen walking up to the mansion with me," she told them, "He's not here yet?" she asked now joining in on their worry.

"No," Bruce replied coldly.

"Here I am!" Dick called down to them from up in an oak tree right above them. He jumped down, "Sorry I was out all night," he apologized. "Oh, and this is raven, former member of the teen titans." He told them.

"We heard, but what is she doing here?" Damian asked annoyed, obviously not wanting her there.

"We needed to catch up," Raven quickly replied, "Plus he recruited me to help with the joker." Raven told them as dick escorted her inside.

"Is that so? What can you do?" Damian asked, looking at her like probably expecting her to be good at nothing.

"Well…." She started but was cut off by dick.

"You'll find out later, right now I have to show her where she will be staying, if that's okay with you Bruce?" he asked.

"Well I would prefer you tell me before you invite people to my house but we need all the help we can get with joker." He told them. Dick then nodded to Bruce in thanks and escorted Raven down a hallway toward her room, leaving the others.

"Woah," Raven gasped looking around the mansion. It was bigger than her apartment building, not that that was much of a statement, it was a pretty small, crappy building.

"Here we are," Dick said opening a door and bringing in her suitcase.

"This is my room?" she asked amazed.

"Yep, and my room's one over on the right if you need me." he told her.

"Okay," she replied.

"So, you're helping with the fight against joker?" he asked her.

"Well why not, besides I didn't want to tell them why I was really here. That's kind of personal, you know?" she asked him.

"Yeah, well welcome to joker watch. Also, just warning you know, batman will start training you as soon as he can, and it's hard." He told her. "Way worse than any training I ever made the titans do," he warned her.

"Okay, I'm ready…. I think." She told him as they left her room to go to the Batcave. The entered the secret passageway into the cave and already found red hood, red robin, batgirl, batman, robin, cat woman, and oracle already there. Everyone quickly glanced at them as they walked in, wondering who Raven was. Raven quickly opened a portal to her house and grabbed her cloak. She quickly put it on, now ready to train.

"Who's she?" Red hood asked.

"She's going to help us against joker, although I do not know much about her powers," Batman admitted, "Care to go?" Batman asked raven pointing to a large platform lowered about 2 feet below ground level. This platform had all sorts of random blocks there, resembling a parkour course.

"Okay," raven replied, about to walk over to the ring when Nightwing grabbed her arm to talk to her.

"When was the last time you used your powers to stop a bad guy?" He asked her quietly, so no one else heard.

"About a week ago, you bat's missed stopping a mugging," she told him winking and walked into the ring. "Don't hold back." She told batman.

"You sure?" Red hood asked off to the side, giving her a look as if she was insane.

"Yeah, if it goes to bad, I can just heal myself…. Just as long as he doesn't kill me." She told red hood.

"Go," batman said as all the bat crew went to stand on the side to watch.

"Okay," they started. Raven saw a mini blast bomb coming toward her so she put up a shield bubble around her, she then dropped it and floated off the ground to try to get a good vantage point, she felt a bat-a-rang coming from behind her and she used her magic to break it, in midair without even turning around. It crumpled apart as it fell to the ground, then Raven saw batman and dived down toward him. He tried to go in for a punch but she was quick and shielded herself. Then she used her magic and made his belt fly off to the side so he had no weapons. She really hoped that he didn't need the belt to hold up his pants, thankfully for her it didn't. He tried going for another punch and was able to hit her in the stomach making her fall back with no air. As he tried to strike while she was down, she teleported to behind him and hit in the back, using her powers to make a black fist. He fell forward and she could hear the gasps of the crowd of to the side of her. He quickly turned around and knocked her legs out from under her and she was down for the count. She got back up quickly, but the battle was over.

Nightwing quickly came over to be proud, "Wow, you were awesome, you landed a hit on the bat!" he told her.

"Yeah well that was me using my good side, wait till you see the dark," she joked. Him knowing what that looked like laughed, wondering how that fight would look. If someone really did see her dark side, they were usually doomed.

"Good work kid," Batman told her offering his hand out for her to shake it.

She quickly put out hers and shook his hand, "Thank you." Then she and Nightwing walked over to everyone else.

"Not terrible," Damian said.

"Dude you owe me 100 bucks," Nightwing said to Red Hood.

"What?" Raven asked him.

"Your boyfriend here bet you would last longer than 5 minutes, I didn't think so. Sorry, you were a lot better than I thought you'd be." Red hood told her.

"Thanks, I guess, and we're not dating." she told him.

"Really by the way you guys look at each other I would hav… oww" he tried to say as Nightwing elbowed him in the ribs.

"Good job," oracle told her. After a few more hours of training, intense sweating, and being exhausted so much you almost pass out, everyone decided to call it a day.


	3. Drunk

Disclaimer: I own none of the teen titans or Batman characters

Raven and Dick walked to their rooms, but ended up both going to Raven's to talk.

"So, when did it start?" Dick asked looking very worried, thinking about seeing her arms covered in marks.

"Not too long ago, but look I'm fine. No need to worry I won't do it anymore." Raven told him, not wanting to talk about it.

"You're not fine! You can put on a fake smile but I know you're faking, you need to stop lying!" Dick told her slightly raising his voice.

"I need some air," Raven told him leaving the Manor. She walked to a beer shop close by, it was full of old guys who looked at her oddly when she came in but she didn't care. She bought a pack of four bottles, and left. She then found a park bench right outside the shop, it was old and falling apart but she sat down at it anyway. Quickly, she opened one using her magic and drank it, then the next one, then the next one, then there was one left and she was already stupidly drunk. She popped the lid on the bottle and chugged some of it before it was pulled away from her face.

"Hey! What the hell! I was drinking that!" she said then looked up, it was Red Robin joined by Red Hood. "Really?" She asked them slightly slurring the word.

"Your drunk," Red Robin said disapproving.

"Yes, but that's not a crime, I'm 23!" She told them, as she got up to walk back toward the beer shop to get some more. Red Hood grabbed her arm.

"No, you don't," Red Hood said.

Suddenly, Raven was up in his face, she was so close he could feel her breathe on his cheek, "Get your damn hand off me right now!" She told him shaking it off. "You're not stopping me!" She told them walking into the store. The two stood there unsure what to do, then they decided to call Nightwing and tell him what was going on. They waited for him to get there and they waited for Raven to come out of the shop. Raven walked out yet again with a pack of four beers, when the red's tried to grab it she put up a bubble around herself and chugged a bottle down, the bubble stayed strong as she drunk another bottle, but as she reached the third bottle it started fading. She finished the third bottle and grabbed the fourth, the shield dropping. The two quickly ran forward and grabbed the bottle as Nightwing showed up.

"Raven….." he said with pity but also fury.

"Don't Raven me, I can feel your stupid pity! Get over it! I don't need stupid pity! I don't need warm, happy, fuzzy emotions! I don't need you to stop me!" She shouted at him slurring a lot of her words.

"Then what do you need?" Nightwing said back with a hint of distain.

"To forget," she yelled, getting up once again to go back into the store but Nightwing jumped in her way.

"Stop!" he told her.

"Get out of my way Dick!" She warned him.

"Fine," he said letting her stroll past him. When he was right behind her he pulled a taser out of his pocket and tased her, resulting in Raven passing out. "She's going to hate me for that," he told the two red's.


	4. Real talk

Disclaimer: I don't not own any of the teen titans or Batman characters

"What's her problem?" Red hood asked in a tone suggesting he did not like Raven at all.

"Look she had a bad childhood, and overall a bad life," Nightwing told them as they headed back toward the manor, switching turns carrying her.

"Welcome to the club, we've all been there!" Red Hood replied annoyed with her.

"Our childhoods have been painful, but hers was much worse," he told them, they weren't buying it. "Okay you want to know her story, right?" he asked them and they nodded arriving at the manor. Nightwing was carrying her in, but once they opened the doors they found Bruce was there waiting with Stephine.

"Your late!" he yelled, ever since joker escaped he was always worried about them, that they might have been captured.

"Sorry boss man, someone had one to many." Red Hood told him, looking at a passed-out Raven, annoyed.

Bruce looked up at Nightwing, "We can't have her on the team, even for one mission, if this is how she acts," Bruce commented.

"I'm sorry, she can handle it most of the time. I'm actually surprised at how strong she is," he pleaded, earning him glares from everyone.

"Strong? She went out and got wasted so bad you had to taze her!" Red hood blurted out. Raven started to open her eyes and look around.

"Ah my head," she said, "Azarath metrion zinthos." She said as she rubbed her head, then suddenly she seemed super alert and Nightwing let her down. "YOU TAZZED ME!" she yelled at Nightwing.

"As I saw it, there was no other way," Red Robin spoke, "you were really drunk."

"Sorry, it's a problem I'm working on," she replied apologetically.

"Seems like it's not your only problem," Red Hood mumbled.

"What?" Nightwing asked him, giving him the glare.

"I carried her part of the way, I saw her wrists. We can't have an emotionally unstable person on this team!" Red hood told him.

"What's he talking about?" Stephine asked.

Raven showed everyone her arms which were covered in scars then walked over to Red Hood and told him, "You have no right to judge me, when you do not know my life at all! You do not know me or my life." She barked at him, then walked back out the front doors.

"Raven wait!" Nightwing called but she was already gone. "Red Hood!" he yelled tackling him to the ground.

"They needed to know, she's unstable! We can't trust her, if she can't even trust herself!" Red Hood told him. Bruce stepped in and pulled the two apart.

"If you want to fight, do it somewhere else!" he told them sternly. They stopped. "Good, now raven would be a good ally to have but Red Hood is right, if she's unstable she can't stay. But she had a good point, we do not know her life, it's not in her file. Trust me I checked, the only thing there is what she can do with her powers and that even says incomplete." Batman stated.

"Her life's not the best…" Nightwing started.

"No, if she wants to stay here, she tells us herself." Batman said. "Do you know where she's going?" Batman asked Nightwing.

"Probably to get another drink," Red Hood interrupted snickering.

"I think she hasn't left the property, I believe she's probably in the garden." Nightwing offered them.

"How would you know that?" Red Hood asked.

"Physic link, I'll go get her." He replied.

"No," Batman ordered. "Red Robin you go and get her, tell her we need to know if we can trust her before she can be a part of this mission…But tell her we want to better understand why she is this way."

"Yes sir," he said as he left to get Raven.

"Did you know?" Batman turned to Nightwing and asked.

"Yes, that's one of the reasons I wanted her to come here, so I could keep an eye of her." Nightwing replied.

"Because that worked out so well," Red hood stated.

"You guys! Stop the fighting, it's not doing anything. Let's just hope Raven come's back and explains herself," Stephanie told them. Everyone shut up for a few minutes and sat in the living room, waiting. Then they heard the door open and Red Robin came through, followed by Raven.

"I heard you guys were looking for me," she shyly said.

"Raven," Nightwing quickly got up and hugged her.

"You know I don't do hugs," she declared serious but teasing. Then he let go and they sat down on the coach next to each other. Red Robin went over to Stephine who got up, then he sat down, then she sat on his lap. They were making eyes at each other, and Raven rolled her eyes.

"So, what's this terrible backstory?" Red Hood asked with sarcasm, still annoyed.

"Well….." Raven said thinking of where to start, "It starts like this, my mother joined a cult, they did an old ceremony. None of them excepted it to work, but it did. My mother was offered to be the bride of Satan, he appeared and my mother was to be his bride, his prize. She was found by these people from another dimension offering to help her. The people of Azarath, I was born there and raised there until I was about 8. No one there would tell me anything about my father so I wanted to find out about who he was. I did a blood ceremony calling upon his essence, but he was powerful and used the spell as a portal. He came to azarath through me, he killed everyone there. He killed my mother, while I had to watch and he laughed. In minutes the planet was dead, only me and him were left. He took me back to hell with him where he ruled over all the demons, he wanted me to go to earth so that he could use me as a portal and take over this world. I refused, I had already caused a planet to die and I decided I would not kill another. He was outraged by my insubordination, he called it. He resulted to torturing me, that lasted for about 5 years. I was barely able to trap him in a crystal, but I did. I caught him off guard, he thought I had finally broke, but I was able to surprise and capture him. Then I left for earth wanting a real home and friends. For a little while I was living in the streets but then an alien attacked and I went to help. Then we formed the teen titans, I was part of a family again but it was hard. I'm an empath, so I can always sense all the emotions around me whether I want to or not. But the more emotion I have, the less I can control my powers. Nowadays I can show some emotion without imploding things, but back then I couldn't have any, and we were teenagers though and all had shifting strong emotions. Because I'm an empath I have a tendency to leach off of those emotions, I try not to but it is difficult. I could always feel everyone strong emotions and I had to keep mine and theirs in check. Then we all split up and I was alone again, no one on the team knew I didn't have a family, so I became homeless once again. After a while I was able to get a job and an apartment, but I didn't try to make friends or any connections really, it always hurt in the end. Eventually after holding back my own sad emotions and feeling so many other's same emotions I caused the marks on my arms, it was just one day when it all happened but it felt like forever and the blood wouldn't stop. My condition also caused me to stop eating for the most part. For the past 3 months, every day I've only eaten an apple and drank a few beers. Somehow all the memories from Hell that I suppressed have come back hard, maybe because of my depression I don't know. But when they come I can't handle the emotion so I go and drown myself in beer trying to forget, like tonight." Raven told them trying not to become too emotional so she just closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, in, out, in out, in, out. Then she calmed herself.

Then Stephine walked over to her and hugged her, crying. "That sounds horrible, I'm so sorry. I don't know how you dealt with that but damn" she told me.

Raven hugged back. "Thanks." She said and smiled a bit. "Well I'm tired, I'm going to bed, I'll let you talk," and with that Raven left.

"I'm sorry about how much I doubted you dick, I really had no idea," Red Hood said his voice full of pity.

"Some of those parts of the story are new to me as well," Dick said. "Can she still help fight against the joker? I think it would be good for her to have a distraction, plus like you said she would be a good ally." He asked.

"We'll talk it over in the morning, I need some time to think." Batman said. Everyone left all having their own thoughts about the subject and everyone realizing how bad Raven's life had really been.

Nightwing walked over to Raven's room, he knocked. He heard sniffling from the other side of the door and then the door opened to reveal raven in a pair of fabric short shorts and a loose white crop top. "Are you okay?" he asked her, entering her room.

"No, I'm not," Raven admitted, as she hugged Nightwing, still crying. He pulled her back a little bit so he could look her in the eyes.

"I'm here Raven, it's okay. I'll never leave you." He tells her and then they lean in and kiss. They break it after a few minutes needing air, and Nightwing goes to leave.

"Stay please, I don't think I can be alone tonight." She said catching his hand.

"Of course," he told her and they both laid down in her bed cuddling. Raven went to sleep that night with a smile on her face.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own any teen titans or batman characters. Zero, zip, nothing, nada, in my dreams.

Raven wakes up and feels someone's body heat next right to her and hands around her waist. Raven tries to move out of his grip but his arms around her waist don't let her, they pull her back in. She sits back on the bed and dick sits up moving toward her until he's pressed up against her and he kisses her neck. Then raven hears a knock on the door and dick keeps kissing her neck and collarbone. She tries to get up once again but he pulls her back to him.

"Come on Dick, someone's at the door." She tells him and he lets her up and hides as she opens the door.

"Master Bruce requests your company at breakfast," Alfred told her. "Both of your company," he stated and walked away. Then raven shuts the door.

"He knew…." She whispered.

"Don't worry, he probably won't tell, even if he does we didn't do anything and even if we did do something we're both adults." He told her soothingly.

"Ugghhh whatever, I have to change," she mumbles, going into her bathroom. She came out to find no one there, then Dick peeked his head in the room.

"Sorry I left I had to change as well, let's go to breakfast." He said taking her hand in his and they walked into the dining room each sitting down next to each other.

"I'm glad you could join us," Bruce said. Everyone else giving them a look of either curiousity or distaste thinking they did something except Bruce who's face remained still. Then Alfred came along and lifted the silver half circle metal lids of the trays of food set out for everyone. After he had lifted all the trays he sat down on the side of Bruce, who then told them "Dig in." Everyone quickly started eating except Raven who sat there playing around with her food, she didn't feel hungry. She never did anymore, she knew it was unhealthy and that she should eat but she was not hungry one bit. Nightwing who was finishing his meal looked over at Raven's which remained mostly untouched. He knew she didn't eat a lot anymore but he thought that if food was put in front of her she would eat.

"You really should eat something Raven, training is going to be brutal," he whispered to her, so the others wouldn't hear.

"I'm not hungry besides am I training today?" she whispered back still playing with her food.

"Do you not like French toast?" Alfred asked her, prompting everyone else to see she had not eaten a bite.

"No, I love French toast. This looks amazing but I'm really not hungry," she spoke hoping to not receive more pity stares. She looked up saw she was getting them, "I'm sorry," she mumbled, "Excuse me," she spoke and with that she got up and left. She walked back to her room and locked the door, then she went into her closet and locked that door as well. She sat door in the dark corner leaving the light off she let the darkness consume her. She sat in the corner crying, thinking of all the pain in her life and regretting sharing all the information with some of them last night. She heard footsteps coming down the hall so she went into the bathroom and turned on the water for the shower and hopped in. She knew Dick had enough respect to give her privacy while she took a bath. While in the warm bathtub she wished for a drink, she knew they would not give her one so she opened a portal and grabbed a beer bottle from her house and drank it while she sat in the bathtub cying into the water. This was becoming a nasty habit for her. She heard knocking on the door to her room, so she called out from in the tub, "Come in," the opened the door and saw the bathroom door shut. "Sweetie practice starts in 15 minutes, you gotta come out eventually," said Stephine.

"I hate the stupid pity glares everyone gives me, I know my life sucks but I don't need everyone reminding me!" she yelled, through the door.

"Okay, then we will try not to give them, but are you coming out? Don't make me come in cause sweetie I will." Stephine told her.

"I…. I….." Raven replied.

"Okay sweetie I'm coming in," Stephine said as she entered just fast enough to see Raven trying to portal her empty beer bottle somewhere. "Sweetie, that doesn't help. You don't know this but I've been there, drinking my life away. It doesn't make the memories go away, it doesn't help with the pain. It only alienates the ones who really care about you creating more pain." She told her. "Come on," Stephine commanded and brought over a towel for Raven, prompting Raven to get up and started drying herself off.

"Thanks Stephine," she said smiling, happy to have someone looking out for her.

"No problem, you already feel like a sister to me and I look out for family," she told her and winked, "I'm gonnna grab you some clothes, you stay and dry off." She commanded her. Raven did what she was told, then Stephine reentered handing Raven a loose crop top and a pair of fabric shorts that were short.

"This is my sleepwear," Raven informs her.

"Not anymore girl, you have an awesome body so flaunt it. I'll twin with you," Stephine told her grabbing another loose crop top and short shorts. They changed into them and even raven had to admit they looked hot. "We have 1 minute to get to the batcave, shit that's across the manor. We're gonna be late." Stephine told her grabbing her arm as she began running out raven's door.

"Wait!" Raven calls her, so she stopped and Raven went up to her and teleported them into the cave perfectly on time.

"Thanks!" Stephine sighs.

"No problem." She replies with a smile.


End file.
